Turn with me back to 2 Peter
chapter 1. I want to preach to you this
morning by God's enablement on the subject of
faith. Peter calls it in verse 1 of
his 2nd epistle, precious faith, like precious faith. The two epistles that Peter wrote,
he speaks of six things, including this, faith, but he speaks of
other things as being precious. He describes them as precious. In chapter one of his first epistle,
he speaks of the trial of our faith. If faith is genuine, it'll
be tried. It'll be tried. And trials don't
produce faith. Now, that's a gift of God alone,
but trials do reveal faith, whether it's genuine or not. The trial
of faith, Peter said in chapter 1 of his first epistle, is more
precious than gold, because gold will perish, gold will perish,
but true faith won't. True faith can't be destroyed. True faith will never cease. Our Lord told Peter that night,
after telling him, you'll deny me, and Peter was just as sincere
as he could be. He was a man, obviously, a man
of like passions just like you and I, and he very foolishly,
like you and I again, was leaning on the arm of his own flesh when
he said, I'll never deny you. Though others will, I won't. I'll die with you. If I'll do
that, surely I won't deny you." And our Lord said, Peter, Satan
had desired to have thee, that he might sift thee as wheat,
but, thank God for that, but, but I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. And it never did. When Peter
stood at the campfire of the enemies of our Lord, cursing,
cursing to try to convince them that there's no possibility he
could be associated with Jesus of Nazareth, he never quit believing. He never quit believing. Faith,
God's precious gift, can never be destroyed. And then in that
same chapter, in verse 19 of 1 Peter, He speaks of those believers
having been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. You were not redeemed with silver
and gold. How can that redeem an immortal
soul? But you've been redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ, precious because of what it accomplished. He entered in one time into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. That's one
of my favorite verses of Scripture, Hebrews 9 and 12. He got the
job done. He succeeded. He obtained our
everlasting redemption. He accomplished atonement. The blood of Jesus Christ was
not wasted. It wasn't spilt in vain. As we sometimes sing, oh, precious
is the flow that makes me white as snow. Indeed, that must be
precious. the blood of the Son of God,
by which he redeemed all believers. How precious it is. It blots
out. It purges all the sins of all
his redeemed. Affectionately, eternally, they're
gone. And then in chapter 2 of his
first epistle, Peter speaks of Christ, the chief cornerstone,
the only foundation of his church, that foundation upon which his
church is built, that foundation that every believer rests their
immortal souls on, and our Lord said, because of that, Because
of that foundation, they'll never perish. They'll never be destroyed. They'll never be washed off.
Come what may. Come what may. That soul that
trusts Christ is saved eternally by God's mighty grace because
of the foundation of His acceptance. That which He rests upon is nothing
less than Jesus Christ Himself. And Peter says it's a chief cornerstone. And it is precious. And then
in that same chapter, he says, Do you that believe? Do you that
believe? Without exception. This is true
of every child of God who have experienced his redemption. Everyone that believes, Peter
says, he is precious. That is Christ himself. He is
the preciousness. And then here in 2 Peter 1 verse
4, he speaks of all God's precious promises given to his people
in Christ. They're all sure. They're all
certain. Everything as Joshua said, Joshua,
that's the Hebrew name for Arlis, as Jesus. He gathered the elders
and leaders of Israel around when he was dying, as he was
leaving this world. He said, your witnesses, your
witnesses, that of everything that the Lord God promised us
has come to pass. Not one word. Not one word of
one promise of all that He promised has failed. It's all come to
pass this day. And every child of God can say
the same. He's promised to His children. Oh, a sweet word, a precious
promise. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. There's nothing present. Nothing
from your past, nothing in your future that can ever separate
you from my love. I've loved you with an everlasting
love and I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Now, that brings
us to our text in 2 Peter, verse 1 of chapter 1. Precious faith. Precious faith. Precious gift
of God. He says, to them that have obtained
like precious faith, to them. There's a distinction drawn right
there, isn't there? That's not to everyone. That's
not to everyone. I know that the popular notion
is that anyone who's not an atheist, those folks who claim to be atheists,
if you don't claim to be that, then you're a Christian. Anybody
that professes any sort of belief, no matter how vague, in God,
in a higher being, they're called a Christian. It doesn't matter
whether they're a Mormon or a Baptist or a Catholic, they're all described
as Christians. If you were raised in a church,
you're told you're a Christian. If you had believing parents,
you likewise are called a Christian. If when you were a baby, without
any memory of it, without any part in it whatsoever, other
than being forced to do it, if you were taken as a baby before
the priest and sprinkled with holy water, you're called a Christian. Or if you were taken as a young
child and dedicated, dedicated, another unscriptural practice,
you're called a Christian. It doesn't require the grace
of God for any of those things, does it? Does it? It didn't require
grace. The grace of God is not necessary
for me to make a decision. That doesn't require a miracle.
It doesn't require grace for me to walk down a church aisle. I did it. I did it a heap of
times. And make a decision or repeat
the sinner's prayer. Multitude of professing Christians
have experienced no more than that. Peter said, be ready to
give an answer. In chapter 3, I think it's verse
15 of his first epistle, to everyone that asketh you, anyone that
would ask you, what's the reason of your hope? Now, you profess
faith in Christ. You profess that when this life
is over, you have a hope to stand before God Almighty, accept it. You say you have a hope that
you will enter into everlasting glory. You have a hope that you
shall not hear, depart from me, I never knew you. Now what's
the reason for it? What's the basis for it? Be ready
to give an answer to all that would ask you, the reason of
the hope that's in you. And multitudes of professing
Christians, who have experienced no more than the things I've
mentioned, have that as their foundation. Now I ask you, I
ask you, is that all there is to being a Christian? Is that
all there is to it? There is a popular book, or there
used to be, I hope it's no longer around, but the title of the
book was Let's Go Soul Winning. It was written by a man named
Jack Howes and he pastored the largest church in the country
at one time in Hammond, Indiana. But the whole The premise of
this book was to convince people how easy it was to be saved. He would get people saved on
elevators. From the first floor to the floor
they were going to, he'd get a decision out of them, do the
same thing coming down. He would sneak up on people,
blindside them as we say, and as he put it, get them saved
without them even knowing it. Just kind of slip it in on them.
Slip it. I read it myself. His own words. Just get them on their blind
side. Sneak up on them. That's sad. That's sad. It's nothing more
than that required. What does God's Word say? Now
that's all that matters. What does the book say? We find
according to God's Word that the salvation of a sinner requires
a miracle. Is that not so? It requires a
miracle. It requires a miracle of God's
grace. It took a miracle to raise Lazarus
from the dead. Did it not? He told his disciples,
Lazarus is dead. He's dead. I'm going to raise him from the
dead." And it took a miracle. Nothing that the priests could
do would raise Lazarus. All those people that had gathered
around their grieving sisters, all of their tears, all of their
mournings could do nothing to raise Lazarus. Lazarus was dead. Mary calls his voice, rather
his name. Martha calls his name. Oh, my
brother, my brother is dead and you weren't here, Lord. But none
of their mourning could raise Lazarus from the dead. But there's
one. There's one who can. Will you
turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2? What happened in Bethany that
day is a picture of what Paul describes here. The same miracle
power, the same mighty grace of God is necessary to raise
a sinner to life as our Lord spoke to Lazarus that day at
the tomb. This is what it's a picture of.
What happened to him is what happens to every sinner spiritually. Here in chapter 2 of Ephesians,
and you have he quickened, made alive. who walked down the aisle. No, no, no. You were quickened
when you made a decision. No, no. When is a man quickened? When is a sinner brought to life
in Christ? When are those who are dead made
alive to God? What happens? When does that
take place? It only takes place and never
will take place until the Son of God who said, I'm the resurrection
and the life, Martha, who said the hour is coming that those
who are dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and what shall
happen? Those that hear shall live. They
shall live. They'll have dropped into their
soul the life of God. If any man's in Christ, he's
a new creation. He's not the old man reformed. He's a new creation. There's
something that was never there before. The hope of Jesus Christ. Christ in you. Christ in you. The hope of glory. This is what
Paul speaks of here in Ephesians 2. You have he quickened, made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein in times past
you walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." No different. No different. Something happened. Something
happened. Something changed all that. What
was it? Verse 4, but God. But God. But God was merciful. But God was gracious, God who
was rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
by grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together and made
us set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the
ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
and His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. Salvation takes
grace, reigning grace, abounding grace, the grace of God. That's the need of every sinner. There was a man that lived during
the time that Mr. Spurgeon preached in London.
And in 1892, shortly after Mr. Spurgeon's death, this man wrote,
Mr. Spurgeon always made salvation
a wonderful, supernatural thing. This great and hard-won salvation
was sure because it didn't stand in the creature. It wasn't dependent
upon him. but upon God. It rested absolutely
with God. Such was the good news preached
to needy sinners. And that's good news. That's
good news to needy sinners. Wasn't it to you? Wasn't it to
you? When God Almighty came to you
and turned the light on. My soul. I thought, what's going
on here? What's wrong with me? I left
the state. Moved somewhere else stupid enough
that I thought I could shake it off. I'm lost. I'm lost. For the first time
in my life, I realized I'm lost. There's a God with whom I have
to do. and when this life is over, I'll
be ushered in to the presence of that holy God." Man alive,
you talk about in an awakening. The cry of my heart day and night
was, how can God be merciful to this sinner? How can God be
gracious to this rebel? And how precious. I never can, it's not possible
to find words to describe how precious that grace appeared
the hour I first believed. It was more precious than the words
of our Master to that poor leper that day that fell before him. I mean, he's a walking death,
Joe. The man's a walking death. And
nobody could help him. Nobody could help. He went to
the priest. What did the priest do? The priest
said, you're unclean. You're unclean. Leave your family. Leave the town you live in. Leave
society. Don't show yourself around anyone
except perhaps another leper. If any stranger not familiar
with our laws happens to approach you, you've got to warn them
to stay away. You shout to them that you're
unclean. You're unfit. God has cursed
you. You're an outcast. And you must
cry out to them, I'm unclean. I'm unclean. I'm lost. I'm guilty. I'm undone. But, but, if you will, whether I'm cleansed
or not is dependent not on my will, but His will. It's His
will that'll make the difference. My will won't give me life. My
will won't save me. My will won't cleanse me. Oh,
but if He's willing, if the King of glory is willing, He can make
me whole. He can make me clean. He can
give me life. He can save me from all my sins. Oh, Lord, will You? Will You? And oh, how precious did that
grace appear when the King of Glory said, I will. And in Mark 1 we're told he touched
that leper. He touched that leper. And oh, with the touch of the
Master's hand, that leper was made clean. Clean. Can you just see his wife and
children? As he goes back home, perhaps
he hadn't been there for years, and he goes back home and they
look out and see him coming up the sidewalk. There he is. Is that him? Is that Father? Is that my husband? Look at him.
Oh my soul, he's not dirty. He's not an outcast. He's not
a cankerous leper anymore. He's clean, if any man be in
Christ, without exception. without exception. God's grace
is always successful. God's grace always triumphs. God's grace is, not was, it is
mighty to save. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
behold, all things are become new. Oh, precious, precious faith. I want that more than I want anything else
for those who come here and hear the gospel. I want them to come. I don't care who they are. Whoever they are, rich, poor,
black, white, it doesn't matter. I want them to come because whosoever
Paul says, you'll call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
But he also said, how shall they call on him in whom they have
not believed? And how shall they believe on
him in whom they have not heard? Oh, because faith cometh by hearing. Oh, I want them to hear. Faith,
a precious gift. Notice what Peter writes. To
those who have obtained, obtained, How is faith obtained? How does
it become mine? In Ephesians 2 and 8, Paul said,
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. You didn't reach in and find
it in old fallen Adam. It wasn't there. I had a fellow
tell me one time he was in a church that gave the altar call, that
thought coming to Jesus was something you could do with your feet.
So he went forward to the altar and there was a fellow on one
side of him telling him to let go. Let go! Let go! Another one
over here was saying, hold on, hold on. He's like, I didn't
know what to do. Hold on, let go, I couldn't do
either one. That's not faith. No, that's not faith. And that's
not how sinners come to Christ. It's not done physically, but
spiritually. A man comes to Christ savingly
when he comes spiritually. Turn back, if you will, to John's
Gospel, chapter 6. Many followed our Lord, especially
during the first year of his ministry, the year of popularity. Many people followed him. They
wanted to see if he would perform a miracle, or perhaps would feed
them like he did the multitude. Many people followed him physically
with their feet, but he turned to them and said, you've not
come to me. Now how about that? How about that? He was more interested
in people's souls than winning friends and influencing people,
wasn't he? He turned to these people that
had followed Him with their feet, had searched where He was, and
found Him, and came to Him, and He turned right to them and said,
You've not really come to Me. No man can truly come to me unless
it were granted to him, given him of my Father. Look in verse
66. After our Lord spoke these words
in John 6, verse 66, it says, From that time many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They'd already said,
This is a hard thing. Who can bear it? We'll not have
this. So they turned around and went
back. Went back to their religion. Look at verse 67. Then said Jesus
unto the twelve, as he watches the multitude do
an about-face and turn away from the Son of God, he looks at the
twelve and says, do you want to go with them? Will you also
go away? Then Simon Peter answered him. Is this your answer? Is this
your answer? Oh, if it is, as our Lord said
in another place, God the Father has blessed you. And Simon Peter
answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God. My soul. We're sure. It's not a matter of guesswork.
It's not speculation. We're sure that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Son of God. He's everything that he claimed
to be. Oh, have you come to Christ not
through the church, not through the Lord's Supper, not through
walking in hell, not through baptism, but come to Christ. These precious promises, how
do I know that they're for me? The precious blood of Christ,
how do I know that it was shed for me? How can I know that? How can I know? How can any sinner
know? Belief. Believe. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Look in chapter 1 of
Peter's first epistle again, and look what he says here concerning
this blessing of faith in Christ. Verse 10 of chapter 1. Or verse 9, let's look at verse
9 as well. receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls. The faith that God gives, not
of yourself, it doesn't originate with man, it's not maintained
by man, but it's God's work. It's his operation as well as
his gift. Let's look at a few verses that
tell us that in Ephesians chapter 1. Faith is the operation of
God, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 19 and 20. Here the apostle Paul
equates that power that power by which God the Father raised
his son from the dead as the same power necessary to raise
dead sinners, to give them faith in Christ. Look at verse 19 of
Ephesians 1. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe? according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places." Look in Philippians chapter 1, Philippians 1 verse
29. Here again, Paul writes, "'For
unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. One more in Galatians. Galatians chapter 2, verse 12. Galatians 2 and verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father.
Or chapter 2, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter 1. Chapter 2, verse
12. buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God." God's work. God's work. God's gift. God's
grace who had raised him from the dead. Faith is a divine revelation
God alone can give. You remember when our Lord asked
his disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And
they were various opinions. And then he asked them, Who do
you say that I am? And Peter said, You're the Christ,
the Son of God. Remember what our Lord said to
him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. Flesh and blood didn't
reveal this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. Faith is the eye of the soul
by which we see Christ, like that blind man. Our Lord opened
his eyes and he says, well, one thing I know. I was blind, but now I see. And he knew who did it. I once
was blind, but now I see. Faith is the arm of the soul. Like that old man in Jerusalem,
to whom God promised, you'll not die until you've seen the
Christ. You'll see the Messiah. And he's
brought into the temple that day, just as Mary and Joseph
bring the young baby in and the Spirit tells him there he is.
And we're told Simeon took the baby in his arms. Faith is the
arm by which we reach out and embrace Christ. We believe on
Him. By the precious gift of God's
faith, or rather by faith, that precious gift of God, we embrace
Christ and say, He is mine and I am His forever. Glory to His
name. Faith. is the way we come to
Christ, the feet by which we come savingly to Christ. He said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And when they
come, when they come, I'll in no wise cast them out. Oh, pray that God will grant
this precious gift to our loved ones, to your son, baby, and
our children, Oh God, grant them this precious gift of faith.
I want them to behold the Lamb of God. I want that. Don't you? I remember
hearing Daniel Parks, Moose, tell the story. Years ago, Don
was preaching, I think in Moose's father's church, where his father
pastored. And one night driving home from
the service, Sandy, Moose's wife, said, uh, I'm lost. I'm lost. She professed to have
been a Christian, but God showed her, not so. You're lost. After the service, the next night, Moose took Sandy back to talk
to Don. Don, my wife, God has shown her
she's lost. She's lost. And Don said, well,
seek the Lord. And that was it. Moose said,
man, I wanted more than that. I expected more than that. I
mean, this is my wife. And that's all Don said, seek
the Lord. That's the best that we do. Shut
Him up to Christ. Just shut Him up to Christ. Don't
give Him any avenues. Don't give Him any loopholes.
Shut Him up to Jesus Christ. It's the best we can do. and
pray that they look to Him, the object of faith. Again, how precious? It's the Lamb of God. Oh, precious
object. Nothing is as precious as that
to a helpless sinner, is there? Nothing. Nothing. Was there?
Was it to you? When this worthless rebel was given faith in Christ, And
God opened my eyes to behold Him, I declare. I want to sit
right next to old Spurgeon, who said he could have looked his
eyes out. What a sight! What a sight! The Lamb of God bore all my sins
away. And God gave me faith to come
to Him, to embrace Him. A few weeks ago, I was watching
the evening news, and they had this story on there about a surgeon
who went to India to perform an operation on people who were
suffering from cataracts so severe they lost their vision. They
were completely blinded by it. I think it was in India. And
people just gathered by, just scores, scores of them came.
And the surgery itself only took like six or seven minutes. And
then, after the bandages were removed, they showed these people. Now, I don't speak their language,
but I know what they were saying. Because when the bandages were
removed from these people, they saw the surgeon sitting in front
of them. And they just laughed. and cried
and put their hands on his face all at the same time. They were
rejoicing and thanking him who performed the surgery. Oh, thank
that great physician of my soul who came to this rebel sitting
in darkness and said, let there be light. Glory to his name. I can say with Peter, I believe
you're the Christ. You're the son of the living
God. He himself prayed that night,
did he not? In his high priestly prayer,
Father, this is life that they might know thee the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom you did send. Peter, or rather Paul,
I'm sorry, said in that prison cell before The executioner came,
saying, I know the time of my departure is at hand, but he
said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. God
trusted him, didn't he? God the Father committed all
to Christ. He committed the keeping of his
law and justice into the hands of Christ. He committed the performing
of his will, all that he required, into the hands of Christ. He
committed his honor and glory into the hands of Christ. And
he committed all of his people into the hands of Christ their
surety. I believe that I can commit all
that I have into the hands of him as well, don't you? He'll
keep me in life. He will be with me in death.
He's promised that He would. And He'll stand for me at the
judgment and He'll present me faultless before the presence
of His glory. Precious, precious faith. The
result of that is full, free, eternal salvation. Oh, that God
would be pleased to grant this precious gift of faith. The revelation
of Jesus Christ, like that blind man, will sing, there's much
I don't know. I don't think that would shock
you, would it? There's a whole lot I don't know.
A lot that I don't understand. But I know this. I once was blind,
Lord. But now I see. I know Him. There's never been one who believed
on Christ who wasn't saved. God's own truth would prove a
lie if any sinner ever comes to Christ and was turned away. His throne must be forsaken before
one who comes to Christ will ever be cast out. A few of you
will recognize this illustration. I want to use it in closing the
message because you heard it not too long ago. I want to use
it again. There was a man at one time who
had a son. They were very wealthy and they
collected art, works of art. Very expensive works of art.
Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and such. This was during the Vietnam War
and his son went to war, went to Vietnam. And he was killed
while he was rescuing one of his fellow soldiers. He was carrying
this young man to safety when a bullet struck him in his heart
and he died instantly. Oh, how the father grieved. About
a month after that, there was a knock at the father's door
and the young man stood there and he introduced himself and
said, I'm the fellow that your son saved. He gave his life for
me. And he told me about the paintings
that you had and collected and how much you and he enjoyed them.
And he said, I'm not any be described as an artist, but
I have painted, and I painted this picture, and he took it
out and showed that it was a picture of this man's son. And the father's
eyes just welled up because he thought, man, that's him, that's
him. He said, I want to give you this,
the young man said. And the father offered to pay
him for it, and he said, oh, no, no, no. He said, I can never
repay what your son did for me. And he set it on a mantle in
the room, a very prominent place, and everybody that would come,
he'd show them the picture of his son. It wasn't long after
that that the father himself died and they had an auction.
And people were well aware of the collection of fine art that
he had, so they gathered the day of the auction, when the
auctioneer said, the auction will begin, There was the picture
of the son. He said, we will auction this
first. And people said, we're not here for that. No, no. Where are the Rembrandts? Where
are the Van Goghs? We're not interested in that.
He said, this must be first. He said, do I hear $200? Not
a word. $100? No, enough of that. And
finally, someone in the back said $10. It was the gardener
who worked for the father for many years. That's all the money
he had. I'll give $10. And the auctioneer said, do I
hear more? And everyone said, let him have
it. Let him have it. Let him have
the picture. Let's get on with the real auction. And he said,
going once, twice, sold to that man in the back. And then he
looked at the audience and said, the auction is over. The auction's
finished. What do you mean it's finished?
Where are the Rembrandts? Where are the mangoes? He said,
the Father in His will left this stipulation, which I'm just now
allowed to tell you, that whoever got the picture of the Son would
inherit everything. They get it all. They get the
entire estate, the auctions over it. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
you and I who have the Son, We have everything, don't we, Joe?
Like Joe read earlier, we don't lack anything. He that has the
Son has everything. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Lord bless you. Amen.